Trying to define architecture is something hard because of its subjectivity. The concept of architecture depends on the experience of each person. It depends on how you live it, how you feel it. There are some people who think tha arquitecture is beauty. Others think that it is symmetry, others oppose to that thought. Some people think that it is just about creating spaces. Other think that it is to create space but with a purpose: it has to be functional. Some people think that it is an art, others that it is a science.
I believe that architecture is the perfect mixture of all those propositions. Architecture is the balance between art and science. The architect does create space, but he has to calculate them and also make them beautiful. The architect works for the human being, the spaces are created in order to satisfy some needs, so it is a social work too. Architecture is a carrer that demans sensitive skills and brains.
Here are some quotes I read in class and I agree with:
"A building must meet the following standards to qualify as architecture: it must conveniently serve the purpose for which it was built; it must be structurally sound; and it must be beautiful" - Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
"Good architecture is always a perfect expression of the time in which it is built, not only of that time's artistic skill but also, if its interpreted correctly, of its religion, its government, even of its economic and political theories". - Talbot Faulkner Hamlin
Architecture gives identity to the places where it is built, it marks a period of time and it tells us a history.